


The Morning After

by weepingwillow



Series: Merlin Memory Month Fics [14]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 12:15:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11035995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weepingwillow/pseuds/weepingwillow
Summary: Arthur was sitting on his high-armed chair by the window, and he nearly glowed in the dawn light. He watched Merlin, lying in Arthur’s beautiful bed, as he woke, his face blank, but when Merlin pushed himself upright he smiled.





	The Morning After

Magic is freedom. Magic is flight. Magic is joy.

 

Magic is all these things and more, and Merlin feels it like a mourning sorrow that he is the only person in Camelot who feels it.

 

It's lonely, yes, but it's worse than that. It's being surrounded by your best friends, but never saying a word of any importance to them. It's basking in glorious sunlight while those friends toil away in the shadows. Some people glory in it, placing themselves above others. Some try to pull others into the light.

 

Merlin longed to share his magic, of course. He used it to protect, but the people he helped felt none of the joy of it. And so that was far from enough.

 

It hurt all the more when he fell for Arthur. His beautiful golden king, and Merlin would give him anything. Yet his magic was one gift that he did not know how to bestow.

 

Arthur was sitting on his high-armed chair by the window, and he nearly glowed in the dawn light. He watched Merlin, lying in Arthur’s beautiful bed, as he woke, his face blank, but when Merlin pushed himself upright he smiled.

 

“It's alright,” Merlin said, too awake by far for the sort of morning he would like to have, “You have your doubts, I would too.”

 

“I just don't understand why you didn't tell me earlier,” Arthur said dully, smile giving way to a more genuine frown.

 

“I should have done,” Merlin admitted sadly, “But I was so used to being afraid.”

 

Arthur nodded a little. Merlin sat up straighter, pushing the pillows back against the headboard.

 

“Last night was fun,” Arthur said hesitantly. Merlin laughed at his words.

 

“It's alright, you can be afraid too.”

 

Finally Arthur met Merlin's eyes. There was fear there, but love, too.

 

“Why don't you come back to bed?” Merlin asked. Arthur nodded and tucked himself back under the covers. Carefully, cautiously, Merlin took his hand and linked their fingers. He held one hand out in front of them.

 

“Look,” he told Arthur, and he pulled at the motes of dust in the air until they shone in the light. They danced a while, and Arthur had to squint to make out the shape they formed. And then, he laughed.

 

“A dragon, Merlin? For me?”

 

Merlin turned his face up to Arthur's to kiss him. Arthur's eyes were wide with some of the wonder Merlin felt.

 

“That's just the start,” Merlin told him, and he kissed Arthur again. He took Arthur's other hand and, thinking of what he had liked the night before, joined his wrists above his head, holding them there with a coil of magic. He traced his fingers down to Arthur's chest and rested his hand above Arthur's heart. He took a deep breath and held it in his heart, took his magic and his joy and directed it in bright light through his hand and down, into the heart below his palm.

 

“Do you feel it?” Merlin asked, “The magic?”

  
“I do,” Arthur said, and he smiled properly now, wide and genuine, the glint of it in his irises. He pulled against the magic hold to kiss Merlin once more. And Merlin knew that he had spoken the truth, that it would be alright. And, too, that he would never feel alone with his magic again.


End file.
